There will be nothing written here of the onslaught of national media and grandstanding politicians who attended Monday night’s happening at Coney Island.
Nor will you find mention of heroes-past that once patrolled a field called Ebbets somewhere in Flatbush. And there certainly won’t be any words on the exploits of this city’s other teams playing in foreign boroughs – be it the Bronx, Queens or, heaven forbid, Staten Island.
Because none of that matters anymore.
In case you haven’t heard, Brooklyn now has a baseball team of its own – a point punctuated in front of a sellout crowd of 7,500 at the brand-new Keyspan Park at precisely 9:27 pm, when, with two out in the ninth inning, a third baseman by the name of Edgar Rodriquez swung and launched a ball high and far and over the wall in left field, tying the match between our Cyclones and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers at 2, and bringing the crowd – nearly everyone had stayed for every pitch – to its feet.
An inning later, a number-three hitter who had the incredible fortune of striking out in his four previous at-bats, stepped to the plate, shouldered with the job of being the night’s hero.
After second baseman Leandro Arias led off with a walk and advanced to third on a throwing error by Scrappers third baseman Francis Finnerty, Mahoning manager Dave Turgeon decided to walk shortstop Rob McIntyre intentionally and try his luck on pitching to the lefty-swinging catcher Michael Jacobs with the bases loaded.
With the infield playing in, a salty breeze blowing hard off the Atlantic Ocean and the crowd as loud as any has ever heard on a Brooklyn night, Jacobs swung as hard as he could at the first offering – and missed.
"Settle down," the fans collectively thought. "We don’t need a homer here, just a fly ball."
Jacobs adjusted his helmet and stepped back into the batter’s box, intent on doing just that.
For the next pitch, a high strike on the outer-half of the plate, he cut down on his stroke just enough and served a line drive to left, sending the fielder there, Eric Thompson, sprinting back toward left-center where he reached up and caught the ball – far enough away from home plate for Arias to tag up and scamper home with the game’s winning run.
The Brooklyns, playing in their inaugural game on Surf Avenue, were victorious, the first Brooklyn home win since the Dodgers left for Los Angeles.
"That’s what this game is all about," said Jacobs, the player Cyclones Manager Edgar Alfonzo called a "gamer," and to whom he’d look to lead his single-A New York Mets affiliate through the grueling 76-game schedule they’ll play out over the next 10 weeks. "One minute you’re the goat, and the next you’re the hero."
The reverse was true in the top of the fifth inning when Arias, the Cyclones second baseman, opened the inning with a stunning play, lunging for a ground ball headed for center field before jumping and firing a strike to first for the out. But with runners on first and third and two outs, the native Dominican botched an easy grounder allowing the first run in Keyspan Park’s history to score and putting Brooklyn down 1-0.
The Scrappers second run came under even stranger circumstances.
With two outs and a runner on second in the seventh, Cyclones reliever Matthew Gahan induced Mahoning second baseman Maximo Made to pop a ball into left field. With the sun already set and the high sky a thing of the past, the Brooklyn faithful thought the Scrapper threat had ended. But the left fielder, Frank Corr, never got to the ball while the shortstop, McIntyre, overran it, and it dropped in for an RBI ‘double.‘
Still, the Cyclones defense did show signs of life – when they needed it most.
With David Byard pitching and one out in the 10th inning, Scrappers center fielder John Van Every singled before advancing to second on a wild pitch to Miquel Quintana, who later walked, putting runners at first and second. Designated hitter Rickie Morton hit a pitch hard on the ground toward the hole between the shortstop and the third baseman. But McIntyre ranged far to his right to field the ball, threw to the second baseman Arias, who touched the bag and fired to first for the double play to end the inning.
That set up the Cyclones’ 10th-inning heroics, which sent their new fans home yelling and screaming with joy about the historic game they had just witnessed – and without a mention of all the trivial things that had led up to this moment or a query as to what any of those out-of-town-teams had done.
Ups and Downs
The Cyclones’ starting pitcher, Matthew Peterson, pitched five innings, giving up one unearned run on four hits while striking out three and walking two.
Australian hurler Matthew Gahan struck out an impressive six batters in his four innings of work, but was tagged with an earned run despite his teammates’ inability to catch a simple popup in the seventh inning.
David Byard, the right-handed reliever, earned the win by pitching the 10th inning, making him 1-0 on the season.
Edgar Rodriguez, the third baseman, had three hits on the night, including the ninth-inning home run, which was the first ever at the new ball park, the first pro homer in Brooklyn in 44 years. He also had a double in the fifth inning. While he hit the first home run in the history of the team in Jamestown, NY, last Tuesday during the team’s inaugural game, Rodriguez, who only speaks Spanish, said through an interpreter that he’s not sure he’s a power hitter.
"Only God knows," he said, adding that he was happy to come through for the team on an opening night when so many fans were in attendance.
For the record, the first pitch at Keyspan Park, thrown by Peterson at 7:19 pm, was a ball. The first hit was a single by Scrapper Francis Finnerty leading off the third. The first hit by a member of the Cyclones came in the fifth, when Rodriguez doubled with one out.
(July 2/9 2001 Issue)
